He smiled again as he always did when breaking horses.
He got up suddenly and went out. Mrs. Marston, administering raspberry cordial in the parlour, heard him knock, and went to the front door.
'Can I help?' he asked in his pleasantest manner. 'A doctor or anything?'
Mrs. Marston laughed softly. She liked young men, and thought Reddin 'a nice lad,' for all his forty years. She liked his air of breeding as he stood cap in hand awaiting orders. Above all, she was curious.
'No thank you,' she said. 'But come in, all the same. It's very kind of you. And such a hot day! But it's very pleasant in the parlour. And you'll have a drink of something cool. Now what shall it be?'
'Sherry,' he said, with his eyes on Hazel's.
'I misdoubt if there's any of the Christmas-pudding bottle left, but I'll go and see,' she said, all in a flutter. How tragic a thing for her, who prided herself on her housewifery, to have no sherry when it was asked for!
Her steps died away down the cellar stairs.
'So you thought you'd outwitted me?' he said. 'Now you know I've not tamed horses all my life for nothing.'
'Leave me be.'